Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Food Chemistry journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodchem Partial substitution of NaCl by KCl and addition of flavor enhancers on probiotic Prato cheese: A study covering manufacturing, ripening and storage time Hugo L.A. Silva a , Celso F. Balthazar a , Erick A. Esmerino a , Roberto P.C. Neto b , Ramon S. Rocha c , Jeremias Moraes c , Rodrigo N. Cavalcanti d , Robson M. Franco a , Maria Inês B. Tavares b , Jânio S. Santos e , Daniel Granato e , Renata G.B. Costa f , Mônica Q. Freitas a , Márcia C. Silva c , Renata S.L. Raices c , C. Senaka Ranadheera g , Filomena Nazzaro h , Amir M. Mortazavian i , Adriano G. Cruz c, ⁎ a Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF), Faculdade de Veterinária, 24230-340 Niterói, Brazil b Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Instituto de Macromoléculas Professora Eloisa Mano (IMA), 21941-598 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil c Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio de Janeiro (IFRJ), Departamento de Alimentos, 20270-021 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil d Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Faculdade de Engenharia de Alimentos (FEA), 13083-862 Campinas, Brazil e Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa (UEPG), Departamento de Engenharia de Alimentos, 84030-900 Ponta Grossa, Brazil f Empresa de Pesquisa Agropecuária de Minas Gerais (EPAMIG), Instituto de Laticínios Cândido Tostes (ILCT), 36045-560 Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil g University of Melbourne, Faculty of Veterinary & Agricultural Sciences, School of Agriculture & Food, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia h Istituto di Scienze dell'Alimentazione, CNR-ISA, Via Roma, 64, 83100 Avellino, Italy i Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, National Nutrition and Food Technology, Research Institute Faculty of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Department of Food Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Prato cheese Lactobacillus casei-01 Sodium reduction Flavor enhancer TD-nuclear magnetic resonance Bioactive compounds Fatty acidy profile ABSTRACT Cheese is a suitable matrix to deliver probiotic strains but it contains a high amount of sodium. The effect of partial substitution of NaCl by KCl and the addition of flavor enhancers (L-arginine, yeast and oregano extract) on probiotic Prato cheese was investigated after 1, 30, and 60 d of refrigerated storage (immediately after manufacturing, and during ripening and storage). Microbiological (lactic acid bacteria and probiotic Lactobacillus casei 01 counts and survival under gastrointestinal conditions), physicochemical (pH, proteolysis, fatty acids), bioactivity (antioxidant effect and angiotensin I-converting enzyme inhibitory activity), rheological, and water mobility by means of time domain low-field nuclear magnetic resonance were investigated. Significant changes in probiotic survival were observed; however, the sodium reduction and the addition of flavor enhancers did not constitute an obstacle to L. casei 01 (> 10 8 CFU/g) during storage. Slight changes were observed in proteolysis, bioactivity, water mobility, texture profile, and fatty acids of the cheeses as a function of the flavor enhancer added. The sodium reduction and the supplementation of Prato cheese with probiotic cul- tures may be an effective alternative to the production of a potentially functional cheese. 1. Introduction Probiotics are defined as live microorganisms that confer health benefits on the host when administered in adequate amounts (WHO, 2001). According to Hill et al. (2014), this definition remains relevant and useful for scientists and regulators to define the broad category of probiotics. Probiotics have numerous interactions with the host, in- cluding competitive inhibition of other microorganisms, effects on mucosal barrier function and interaction with antigen-presenting dendritic cells (Marchesi et al., 2016). Among the probiotic food, cheese is consumed worldwide and constitutes an essential part of the human diet (Thomas, 2016). Several factors, including high pH, low acidity, high buffering capacity, and an anaerobic environment created by the protein-fat matrix contribute to the viability of probiotics throughout refrigerated storage and during the passage through the gastrointestinal tract (Cruz, Buriti, Souza, Faria & Saad, 2009). Ripened cheeses are regarded as bio-matrices of probiotics that remain viable over extended periods of time (Cichosz, Aljewicz, & Nalepa, 2014), so there is an https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2017.12.064 Received 3 October 2017; Received in revised form 15 December 2017; Accepted 17 December 2017 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: adriano.cruz@ifrj.edu.br, food@globo.com (A.G. Cruz). Food Chemistry 248 (2018) 192–200 Available online 18 December 2017 0308-8146/ © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T